Monday, June 27, 2011

Thursday night was off to a slow start. I knew one person was going to meet me at least so lets do it. Weather was nice, trails were ready, no excuses. Decided to head to Beaver Res road off Peak to peak. The usual pre ride compare your bling. Those 20 inch rims beat everyone out though....We were off heading West towards Coney Flats TH.

Sun came out for a bit and Geoff, Toby and Kyle do some catching up.

Spillway at Beaver Res was about 9 inches deep crossing it. Plenty of water to go around this year.We dropped into the Coney TH and Beaver Cutoff trail down to Peaceful Valley. Connected with the Sourdough and headed South towards Brainard. Not to far in the old burn area, there is a nice build up that has been here forever. Its steep on the front side so that is the crux. Geoff going for it.Kyle letting it go and the bash guard was not such a bad thing here to have!

Some more single track climbing. Trail ranges from rooty, loose rock to smooth pine needled bliss.Pond up near South end of Wapiti trail junction. Plenty of water here and the frogs were alive. Sun was setting and looked great through my orange lenses. Not as great in the pic.Yes, I actually was there.

Geoff enjoying the fun trail.

The Saint Vrain River was just gushing.Anyone want a quick trip down low? We snapped a few pics and then Turned North East on South Saint Vrain Trail.

Kyle riding some the log turn in South Saint Vrain Trail.Jeff making it happen. That tree had fallen across the switch back so you had to cut it a bit short.

Light was fading fast. Here we are bombing down the lower SSV trail back to beaver Res road. Super fun figure eight we did. Trails were in perfect shape and the we had an awesome cool night to ride in.

Monday, June 20, 2011

I'm a big fan of the Voler jerseys the club started using two years ago (thanks again clothing coordinators!). The fit is good, but most importantly for an MTBer, the durability and color fastness is good too, better than previous years. However, one thing has always bugged me and that's the zipper pull. First of all, it's not easy to grab especially with winter gloves on, but most importantly, it rattles annoyingly on the buckle of a pack's sternum strap (only an MTBer would have this complaint, I guess).

So, I thought of the following after seeing how the zipper pulls on my Sierra Designs tent worked. For the record, while I was initially excited that I was the first to think of this, John P. beat me to it. When I told him the idea, he said he'd already done it. So, John gets original credit, I think.

The idea is simple - just cut off the old zipper pull with wire cutters and replace it with a short length of paracord. I used what I had on hand, some white 325 paraline, but black might be better.

Before:

In progress:

And finally:

The knot makes it easier to grab with gloves, and no more rattling! And it's lighter too, that metal zipper pull probably weighed a good 2 grams or so. I probably gain some few hundredths of a second in an hour with this change, perhaps I'll podium in my next race now too. :)